Thursday, August 18, 2016, 8pm Hearst Greek Theatre The Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma Kinan Azmeh, clarinet Kayhan Kalhor, kamancheh Jeffrey Beecher, bass Yo-Yo Ma, cello Mike Block, cello Cristina Pato, Galician bagpipes, piano Nicholas Cords, viola Shane Shanahan, percussion Sandeep Das, tabla Mark Suter, percussion Haruka Fujii, percussion Kojiro Umezaki, shakuhachi Johnny Gandelsman, violin Wu Man, pipa Joseph Gramley, percussion Wu Tong, sheng, suona Colin Jacobsen, violin Cristina Pato, Wu Tong Fanfare for Gaita and Suona Traditional Malian, arr. Shane Shanahan Ichichila Traditional Irish, arr. Colin Jacobsen O’Neill’s Cavalry March Wu Man, arr. Ljova Green (Vincent’s Tune) Kinan Azmeh, Jeffrey Beecher Syrian Improvisation Michio Mamiya Miero vuotti uutta kuuta, from Five Finnish Folksongs Wu Man, Wu Tong Duo Colin Jacobsen Atashgah* Sandeep Das, Kojiro Umezaki If you shall return... † Antonín Dvořák, arr. Jeremy Kittel Going Home Billy Strayhorn, arr. Shane Shanahan Take the “A” Train** INTERMISSION David Bruce Cut the Rug *** Drag the goat – Bury the hatchet – Move the earth – Wake the dead Paco de Lucía, arr. Colin Jacobsen Zyryab Kinan Azmeh Wedding * Commissioned by the Laguna Beach Music Festival for Kayhan Kalhor and Brooklyn Rider and premiered in 2011. ** Arrangement commissioned by Reservoir Media for The Silk Road Ensemble in 2015. *** Commissioned by Silkroad in 2012. † Commissioned by Silkroad and dedicated to Anna and Peter Davol, with deep affection and thanks. This performance is made possible, in part, by Patron Sponsors Nadine Tang and Bruce Smith. 15 PROGRAM NOTES here are many different kinds of home— In 2007, Yo-Yo suggested that we use the art and physical, childhood, those that we build tradition of indigo dyeing to connect disciplines Tin our memories, and many others. Silk - and cultures in our work with elementary road is a creative home for me and for mem - school students. During the course of that ex - bers of The Silk Road Ensemble, a place where ploration, Harvard musicologist Ingrid Monson we return to explore new artistic languages, to shared this song with me. Ichichila is a tune tra - encounter friends and strangers, and to find joy ditionally sung by the Tuareg people while dye - in unexpected connections. One of the ways we ing textiles in indigo pits, and its groove comes have deepened our relationships over the years from the rhythm of textiles being plunged in is by bringing each other home. Over the course and out of the dye with long sticks. I was drawn of this evening, we invite you to join us as we to this rhythmic foundation, to the song’s re - share what home sounds like for many of us. laxed vibe, and to the way the music was used to As you listen, I think you will hear how dif - ease the burden of difficult work. ferent our homes are. For us, this is one of the —Shane Shanahan great pleasures of Silkroad: we celebrate differ - ence; we cultivate curiosity in our exploration The great Irish fiddler Martin Hayes intro - and generosity in our sharing. In our home, duced us to O’Neill’s Cavalry March —a tune something completely unfamiliar presents a I understand to be so iconic in the Irish tradi - precious opportunity to build something new. tion that it is almost a cliche. The bones of this Many of the selections tonight represent old tune, which dates back to the early 1800s, music that ensemble members have written or are so strong that it has weathered various arranged for the group over the years. I am par - treatments over the years. When I first heard ticularly excited to share this aspect of what we Martin play it, I was captured by its solitary, do; I believe that by writing or arranging music, stoic character, and yet immediately felt that a musician goes beyond knowing and express - there was a way to add layers of instruments ing a tradition and becomes an agent of its evo - and subtle hints of harmony. Featured in the lution, creating something new. instrumentation are the sounds of Kayhan Kal - Welcome to our home. hor’s kamancheh , as well as Kojiro Umezaki’s —Yo-Yo Ma shakuhachi , Wu Man’s pipa , and a complement (adapted from liner notes from of Western strings. The Silk Road Ensemble’s latest recording, —Colin Jacobsen Sing Me Home, Sony Masterworks, 2016) I wrote Green (Vincent’s Tune) as part of the The Fanfare for Gaita and Suona was devel - suite Blue–Red–Green for The Silk Road oped by ensemble members Cristina Pato and Ensemble. When my son Vincent was four Wu Tong to explore the idea of connecting two years old, he would often run around singing sides of the world—Europe and Asia—through this tune. One day I asked him where he had a musical dialog between two instruments that heard it, and he said, “I don’t know, Mommy. have in common a powerful sonority and a pro - I made it up.” I was so struck by his melody that found relationship with their respective tradi - I turned it into a composition as a way to cap - tions. This open call between the gaita (Galician ture his youth and the wonderful times we bagpipes) and suona (Chinese horn) launches spent together. this evening’s program with a conversation be - The piece is named after my favorite color. tween traditional wind instruments as they at - Green represents spring, when everything tempt to understand, connect with, and respect grows and has renewed energy and enthusi - each other’s cultural roots. asm—much like a four-year-old child. —Isabelle Hunter —Wu Man 16 PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES Michio Mamiya's compositions were greatly pressed them was an ancient fire temple, or influenced by his insatiable curiosity about the atashgah , outside the city of Esfahan. Originally traditional music of his native Japan, along with built as a holy site for the Zoroastrian religion in that of Scandinavia and Africa. His long and the Sassanid period of Iran’s history (third to distinguished career as one of Japan’s leading sixth centuries CE), it felt to these travelers like musical figures serves as an inspiration to The a place of significant power—a place that makes Silk Road Ensemble. Early on in his life as a one aware of the layers of history. For Jacobsen, composer, Mamiya became fascinated with the the experience of listening to Kalhor play music Sami people of Finland (also known as the can be “like watching a fire in a fireplace; it is Lapps), the indigenous people of sub-Arctic mesmerizing, hypnotic, and yet constantly Scandinavia who represent a somewhat sur - changing. His music comes from a deep inner prising musical and linguistic connection to the creative fire.” Jacobsen caught a spark of that East. Inspired to explore deeper, Mamiya trav - creative fire, and on returning from Iran that eled to Finland to study its indigenous music, summer, was inspired by his experience to do following his studies in Western classical com - something with what he had heard and en - position at the Tokyo Academy. Tonight’s selec - countered. He has been writing and arranging tion, Miero vuotti uutta kuuta (a song of the music ever since, and Atashgah , composed for new moon) is a brief but loving snapshot of kamancheh and Western strings, is one result of these encounters and is excerpted from that inspiration. Mamiya's larger 1977 collection for cello and —Isabelle Hunter piano, Five Finnish Folksongs. —Nicholas Cords The story of If You Shall Return… started when tabla player Sandeep Das whispered a re - When ensemble members Nicholas Cords and peating musical theme characteristic of Bhatiali Colin Jacobsen visited Kayhan Kalhor in Iran boat songs from the Bengali-speaking regions in the summer of 2004 on a Silkroad-sponsored of the Brahmaputra River. As in a game of mu - cultural exchange, one of many sights that im - sical telephone, the whispered theme quickly 17 PROGRAM NOTES transformed in the ears and instruments of tently plagued by malfunctioning PA systems, other ensemble members, changing in musical clattering breakdowns, and stalls, some of mode and rhythmic emphasis, and evolving which I have tried to portray in this arrange - with the addition of a new melody inspired by ment. I was very excited by the opportunity to Jiangnan Sizhu (silk and bamboo music of the create a Silkroad version of this very familiar lower reaches of the Yangtze River). tune. Our unusual instrumentation presented Emerging from those core elements is a form some intriguing possibilities and I hoped to that is steps away from an archetype common make a piece that would be a unique addition to to jazz charts, a foundation that welcomes many the already plentiful catalog of “‘A’ Train” different musical voices. arrangements. Once out of sight of the shores of the river, —Shane Shanahan once beyond the threshold, once transformed, what will have changed if you—the boatman, When composer David Bruce developed Cut the lover—shall return? the Rug for The Silk Road Ensemble in 2012, —Kojiro Umezaki he was inspired not only by the concept of the Silk Road but by filmmaker Tony Gatlif’s doc - Silkroad is a connector and a bridge builder; its umentary Latcho Drom , which explores the music is vitally reflective of our shared human - broad, multicultural embrace of Roma, or ity and our global trajectories, and plays a nat - gypsy, music. “The idea of all these diverse but ural role in the need for greater cross-cultural equally vibrant musics being part of one large exchange. It seems that Dvořák would have family has always appealed to me,” David says, been a kindred spirit in these matters.